Professor William Daniels previously served as Professor and Head of School: Medical Sciences at UKZN. Prior to joining UKZN, he worked at the University of Stellenbosch as Associate Professor and Head of Discipline: Medical Physiology.

Research:

Professor Daniels has organized  11 International and National conferences and workshops. He was invited to present 11 lectures at National and International platforms. He has received more than R2.5 million research funding for the last 5 years and trained 23 Postgraduate students.

Best publications last 3 years:

1. Willie MU Daniels, Joachim dK Uys, Petra van Vuuren, Dan J Stein. The development of behavioral and endocrine abnormalities in rats after repeated exposure to direct and indirect stress. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 2008  4(2): 451-464.
2. IS Pienaar, LA Kellaway, VA Russell, AD Smith, DJ Stein, MJ Zigmond, WMU Daniels. Maternal separation exaggerates the toxic effects of 6-hydroxydopamine in rats: Implications for neurodegenerative disorders. Stress, 2008, April 21:1.
3. Joachim DK Uys, Suzel M Hattingh, Dan J Stein, Willie MU Daniels. Large scale hippocampal cellular distress may explain the behavioral consequences of repetitive traumatic experiences – a proteomic approach. Neurochem Res, 33 (9) 1724-34, 2008.
4. Lelanie Marais, Susan J. van Rensburgh, Johann M. van Zyl, Dan J. Stein, William MU Daniels. Maternal separation of rat pups increases the risk of developing depressive behavior after subsequent chronic stress by altering corticosterone and neurotrophin levels in the hippocampus. Neurosci Res, 61(1): 106-12, 2008.
5. Dan J. Stein, Willie MU Daniels, Jonathan Savitz, Brian H. Harvey. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor: the neurotrophin hypothesis of psychopathology. CNS Spectrum 2008, 13: 11 – 16.
6. Nicola Simola, William M.U. Daniels, Timothy Schallert and Micaela Morelli. Priming of rotational behavior by a dopamine receptor agonist in hemiparkinson rats:  Movement-dependent induction. Neuroscience 2009, 158(4): 1625-31.
7. Pienaar IS, Schallert T, Hattingh S, Daniels WM. Behavioral and quantitative mitochondrial proteome analyses of the effects of simvastatin: implications for models of neural degeneration. J Neural Transm. 2009 Jul;116(7):791-806.
8. Faure JJ, Hattingh SM, Stein DJ, Daniels WM. Proteomic analysis reveals differentially expressed proteins in the rat frontal cortex after methamphetamine treatment. Metab Brain Dis. 2009, Dec 24(4): 685-700.
9. Daniels WM, Pitout IL, Afullo TJ, Mabandla MV. The effect of electromagnetic radiation in the mobile phone range on the behaviour of the rat. Metab Brain Dis. 2009, Dec 24(4): 629-41.
10. Daniels WM, Fairbairn LR, van Tilburg G, McEvoy CR, Zigmond MJ, Russell VA, Stein DJ. Maternal separation alters nerve growth factor and corticosterone levels but not the DNA methylation status of the exon 1(7) glucocorticoid receptor promoter region. Metab Brain Dis. 2009, Dec 24(4): 615-27.